<p>Wow - I woke up this morning to find tons of ideas! Thank you so much to everybody. I will look into all of them, unfortunately time will limit what we can do , but it’s nice to have a lot of ideas to choose from.
FYI - to Opie and whoever else was interested - we are visiting UW, WWU, UO, OSU, and Portland State U. Unfortunately she is only interested in large schools so she doesn’t want to look at any of the great smaller schools in that area - but it’s her choice, so I will follow her lead. Then we will be flying down to San Diego for a quick stop and back home for Easter. It will be exhausting I know , and I hope my d can get what she needs from such a hectic trip!</p>
<p>look into University of Portland…very good school and not very small</p>
<p>“we are visiting UW, WWU, UO, OSU, and Portland State U.”</p>
<p>UW is the only big school in a big city. Western WA is a good school and a fun little town near the border. I graduated from there. OR State… My D really liked, it’s a beautiful school very friendly in another small town beautiful drive in that area. U of O also in a small town, been there for LAX (Son) and is nice too. Portland State is considered a commuter school, I know a few people there. It is probably the most different of the bunch.</p>
<p>If you can, visit Lewis and Clark while in Portland. On your way to Corvalis, stop by Linfield (my s a tour guide and recent med school admit- yea!) or go I-5 and stop by Willamette. </p>
<p>Your going to find the state schools in Wa and Or charge out of staters as much or more than the private schools. Having a biology class with 15 students and the professor teaching it has alot going for it. Plus the smalls are very generous with scholarship dollars. </p>
<p>Admittedly, my D’s first choice was OSU. It had everything she was interested in for vet school and pharmacy school. Unfortunately, they simply hammered us for being out of state to the tune of an extra 60k ontop of unmet tutuition R&B. We loved the school, we didn’t love the price tag. </p>
<p>Willamette may cost her a couple thousand in odds and ends for undergrad. It is a great school in a cool little town. Besides Willamette’s foodservice was on the food network RRay $40 a day show for lunches. It is that good. </p>
<p>Good luck and best wishes on your trip out here. I guarantee if you D ends up out here, you’ll start looking to retire out here. It’s just that nice. Enjoy your stay and you can’t go wrong with your choices. Hopefully, you can squeeze in a small here or there to compare.</p>
<p>you are going to have a busy trip
where are you going first? Seattle?
Its supposed to rain tommorow and then the rest of the week the sun will be “out” low 50s
If you are driving up I-5 to Bellingham be especially careful around the past Everett-Marysville area- lots of bad accidents</p>
<p>I am going to try and get D to look at Western as well-
Its in a pretty location- I don’t know a lot about Bellingham- but I love Vancouver & the winter Olympics are coming up.</p>
<p>UW has a FIG program ( freshman interest groups) that help to break the class into smaller groups - also they have at least the freshmen read the same book which I think is cool- I think last year it was Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.
More UW students go into the Peace Corps after graduation than any other school - which I also was impressed by</p>
<p>good luck and enjoy your trip-
I wont even be in Seattle Sunday otherwise I would buy you a latte if you go to the Fremont Sunday Market- Im taking D across the bridge to play a rugby game at Marymoor Park ( which is always sad for me, because a sports field there is dedicated to a very good friend of mine who died in his very early 20s- but its a great park- we used to go there all the time)</p>
<p>"Im taking D across the bridge to play a rugby game at Marymoor Park "</p>
<p>Very cool Em. I played for around 10 years. A great sport. It’s a great day for rugby.</p>
<p>There is a local hamburger chain Kidd Valley and they have homemade onion rings that are just delicious.</p>
<p>I hope you have a good trip PAmom, be sure and post your impressions, it will be interesting to hear thoughts of someone outside the region. ( again it is supposed to get sunny tomorrow- makes a huge difference around here)</p>
<p>( I agree Opie, OSU, is really expensive for a public school- we are going to look anyway- but when U of H- Hilo, which is the size of an LAC, would be around $10,000 inc room & board with WUE, it will be hard to make the case on spending more than twice as much)</p>
<p>You say you’ll be in Seattle on Sunday. My perfect Sunday in Seattle would begin with dim sum in the International District and then continue to Pike Place Market, where I would make sure I did my usual stop at the Giant Shoe Museum (which takes, I promise, less than 2 minutes and 50 cents) <a href=“Seattle, WA - Giant Shoe Museum”>Seattle, WA - Giant Shoe Museum;
and then I would wander through Pike Place Market for a while, stopping to admire the fish throwers. From there, I would take a ferry someplace and back (I agree that Bainbridge is a nice short trip), stop for tea/coffee at Starbucks, and then head back to plan the evening. Maybe Jazz Alley. <a href=“http://www.jazzalley.com/[/url]”>http://www.jazzalley.com/</a></p>
<p>(I agree with WashDad that Noble Court in Bellevue is better than many places in the International District, but I also agree that a trip over the 520 bridge is a pain in the **** if you don’t have other reasons to be in Bellevue.)</p>
<p>“I agree Opie, OSU, is really expensive for a public school- we are going to look anyway- but when U of H- Hilo, which is the size of an LAC, would be around $10,000 inc room & board with WUE, it will be hard to make the case on spending more than twice as much”</p>
<p>Yea, the Hawaii schools seem like a very good deal. We kinda kicked the idea around ourselves. I think OSU is the only school that doesn’t participate in the WUE, which pretty much took it out of the running. Still it’s a very pretty campus and the drive in that area is very beautiful. Our problem was my D didn’t run a 4.3 forty or average 7 yards a carry. Then the WA residence thing wouldn’t matter. Boy, that kinda got them PO’d. But it sure felt good to say. :)</p>
<p>The Crumpet Shop! Our favorite breakfast place, strategically located next to Pike Place market ( on 1st) . :)</p>
<p>Best (and expensive) Chinese restaurant is Hongs on Jackson Street on the east edge of downtown.</p>
<p>For just sight seeing, go watch my high school classmate Mike toss around salmon at the Pike Place Market or the view from hill above Alki. Great vista of Elliott Bay and downtown Seattle. Also, you may see a California Sea Lion on a harbour boat tour. Orca pods are found in upper Puget Sound around the San Juan Islands. The whales have been known to come up to the shore to have as far south as Olympia.</p>
<p>For good eats outside of town, the big family Chinese restaurant in the Asia shopping mall off the Renton-Kent highway is very good. Also, Vince’s Pizzaria makes a great pie. Try the Vince’s in the Renton Highlands.</p>
<p>As promised, I am here to report back about our trip!
It was an exhausting, but productive week. Thanks for all of your great ideas - we were able to use a lot of them. </p>
<p>In Seattle - we stayed at the University Inn right near campus. What a find! We loved it and the location was great. We did our own tour of campus on Sunday ( unfortunately we arrived late Sat and no tours on Sun). Campus was absolutely gorgeous, though mostly absent of students in the morning. There were quite a few photographers there though, taking photos of the beautiful cherry blossom trees in full bloom. We really liked the area around campus as well and my daughter was able to wander around the art building and poke her head into studios, etc. She said she could definitely see herself there.
We then went to the Fremont Market ( thanks EK) - she loved it, got some great shoes and glass beads. Then off to Ballard for a stroll and lunch at La Isla.
Then we went to the Public Market area and down by the outdoor sculpture garden. Grabbed a quick fish taco at Ivans (express? )</p>
<p>continued…
We all really loved Seattle - it seemed safe and fun. The next morning we took another stroll through campus to check out the library and a couple of spots we missed. We left just before the tragic shooting occurred. ( really sad)
We then headed up to Bellingham to tour WWU. What a gorgeous area. Sadly , my d did not feel that WWU was the place for her, although we all found things to like about it. My H and I took a short drive to some waterfalls which were very nice ( I love waterfalls so we try to catch a sidetrip whenever possible ). We had a nice walk at the park on the water and a nice dinner there as well.
The next day we headed to Corvallis to see OSU. Long drive. We were greeted very warmly by the visitors center. They were very organized and on the ball. We were surprised by how much we liked this school as we did not have high expectations ( not sure why? ). My d loved it except the art department seemed somewhat limited and Corvallis was a little small for her.</p>
<p>continued ( sorry but I hate to type a lot and then lose my post for some weird reason)
We then went to Eugene for the UO tour. As expected my d loved Eugene and felt very at home there. The campus was nice - I’m not that fond of so much brick - but it was still pretty overall. Of course my husband was excited to run on the hallowed ground of Prefontaine. My d was able to speak with a grad art student who also gave her a little tour of the facilities. That was a big plus. We all left feeling pretty good about this school.
The next day we drove to Portland. My d loved Portland, unfortunately she will not even consider a school of less than 10,000 so we only looked at PSU. Not accredited for art program so it was out.
We flew to San Diego the next day to look at SDSU. She loved the weather (of course) and the campus. She really liked the art facilities as well. She did not feel as comfortable with the student body as she did at UO though. It’s still on her list.
We stayed near Pacific Beach so she was able to wander around there and decided that she really liked having that as an off-campus hang-out.
Then home - exhausted - just in time to welcome D1 home for Easter!
Over all a good trip!</p>
<p>PA Mom,
Can you tell a little more about WWU? What were the things you and d liked and didn’t like? It’s my d’s first choice now, since she’s waitlisted at UW. Would you consider writing a college visit report?
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>sunsea - I just spent a half hour typing up our report and when I went to post it it made me log on again and I lost it. When I have more patience I will try again. Meanwhile if you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Great review. thanks. UW is an incredible school and in a great city. I did my graduate studies at the UW and loved living in Seattle. There is SO much to do. The campus at UW is also marvelous. You did not get over to the arboretum (college-owned) but a great place for students to stroll…Eugene is also a great college town…the difference is truely, a big-city school and a college town. I can’t speak to the art departments.</p>
<p>SDSU - I don’t think there is even a comparison. Great big party school. CSU’s are good solid academcally, but don’t hold a candle to UW for the options afforded a U with major and extensive grad programs. There will be great speakers on campus at UW and lots of options for art and entertainment. San Diego is lovely for weather, but it too, does not hold a candle to Seattle. </p>
<p>All this from a kid from the OC. I would go back to live in Seattle in a heart beat. You can be in the mountain skiing, on the sound sailing, on the islands or the Olympic Penninsula…within a few hours. It is overcast most of the year, but when the “mountain” is out (Rainier) there is nothing like it in the world. It is a spectacular place for one who likes the outdoors, even with the drizzle.</p>
<p>Just as an aside: my son’s friends who went to WWU (about five of them) uniformly had positive experiences there; the eight or so who went to UW pretty much disliked it, even though they are now finishing up. I think Western is just a more manageable school.</p>
<p>dmd77 - Do you know why they disliked UW? Was it mainly the size ?
I can definitely see WWU as a nice option for in-state kids in particular. Unfortunately my daughtyer just didn’t get that " I’d fit here" vibe. </p>
<p>As much as I loved UW I don’t know if she’ll apply there either - between the slim odds of her getting admitted OOS and the high OOS tuition - it’s not really a match. We’ll see come the fall. </p>
<p>Her art teacher has convinced her to take a summer class at one of the top art schools ( which is in our area) , so maybe she’ll decide that it wouldn’t be horrible to apply to some on our coast.</p>
<p>I have also heard good reports about university of victoria and university of british columbia
( my daughter dislikes Vancouver though for some reason- I really don’t know why, I really liked it)
We havent looked at western ( with this D), yet- but plan to.
The UW is a great school, but I think most who have grown up in this area, they want to get the heck out of Dodge
However, some from Ds school- do attend teh honors program and we also have known kids who have transferred from other schools ( mainly because of money)</p>
<p>I know UW has an excellent art dept- at least I have heard good things- Jacob Lawerence of course is no longer with us, but a strong program.</p>
<p>But I don’t think I would pick UW OOS for art</p>